Melbourne Fashion Festival - Day 1 (Part a)

Helen Lee - March 29 2005

The Melbourne Fashion Festival, always known for being the show for the people, filled with beautiful outfits by some of Australia's (and New Zealand's) country's biggest designers as well as up and coming talents. So when it came to working at this year's festival I figured why not, after all this year's shows had been moved to Federation Square, which is an awesome modern / artsy location for a fashion festival.

So when March the 14th rolled around I was definitely excited, it was the Opening Night with a Invite Only Launch crowd. Moet would be flowing and celebrities on the red carpet.

But as everything fashion goes, nothing ever runs smoothly. First thing that went wrong was that I get a message at about 3pm to show up at 4pm not at 5pm like originally scheduled. I had just stepped out of the shower, but no big deal, I could make it there on time. I eventually made my way to Federation Square at about 4:10pm, and could not find backstage. Someone eventually directed me downstairs, where I had to walk past the looooong 45 metre (148 foot - the average catwalk is about 25m/82f long) neon orange catwalk, while the rest of the room was filled with black seats and the odd person fixing the goodies placed on the seats for the VIP industry only crowd tonight. The look was very hot and glam.

When I eventually find my way backstage, there are people everywhere. It takes me a few minutes to find Sara so I can sign in, and then get assigned a model to dress for the night. I get assigned Christina C, whom I had no idea what she was like (to dress) and what she looked like. So I sit down near her rack and chat to another dresser for a few minutes before I realise I have to put my bag into the cloak room. On way down to the cloak room I run into Jayde, a dresser whom I met the week before at the David Jones Autumn/Winter shows, turns out she's dressing Emily (who is a really nice girl from Sydney, and so tall) and she tells me one of the Christina's (there were two at this show) was a bit narky sometimes. Of course I freak that I've been given a difficult model, and I promptly find Tracey (whom I worked with at DJ's) who was part of the production team at MFF and asked if she wanted me to dress a fast change model.

Tracey recognises me as a 'Pronto girl' (I work for the production company, Pronto, with Tracey, Jayde, Richard, Oscar, and a few more girls at fashion shows) and switches me to Nicole. Now I am talking about international model Nicole Trunfio, who hails from Western Australia and was one of the faces of MFF. She has also been overseas for the last few years and on the runway recently for the likes of Christian Lacroix, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Oscar de la Renta, Chanel and Roberto Cavalli, and currently is in the Sisley advertisements. I panic a little and think that I am in way over my head, but then I've been working backstage at shows for years now, so there is nothing anyone can throw at me that would faze me. I've seen major models throw tantrums, designers having moment, people fainting, Paris Hilton flitting around like she owns the place and so many shoes issues I can't even begin to tell you about them.

Continue reading... part b